


strike for love (strike for fear)

by Gerbilfriend



Series: stories from the women of one piece [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Pre-Canon, whitey bay appriciation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/pseuds/Gerbilfriend
Summary: Bay grows up with with ice, she grows up surrounded by beauty and danger, but even the first half of the Grandline is not a peaceful place.Or.How Whitey Bay joins the Whitebeard Pirates
Relationships: Whitebeard Pirates & Whitey Bay, Whitey Bay & Rakuyo, Whitey Bay & Vista
Series: stories from the women of one piece [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888405
Comments: 11
Kudos: 31





	strike for love (strike for fear)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhyWhyNot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/gifts).



> I blame the Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud) discord for this whole thing. You guys know who you are.
> 
> This was supposed to be a 2k piece but well, yeah.
> 
> Ha haha 
> 
> ha. 
> 
> Anyways, this is Gerbilfriend getting way to attached to a character with like one line. I hope y'all enjoy

Growing up, ice is everything.

It's fun, sliding about on skates. Bay doesn’t remember learning how to glide on the ice, it's natural, like laughing, easy, like smiling. 

They use cleats for ice harvesting and skates for getting around and ice always feels more like ground than earth.

It's home, carved out of the blocks of ice they don’t sell, sent on ships down the Grandline.

It's family.

Her first memory is sitting outside and watching as her mother explains to her how to harvest ice, explaining how the saws work, showing her how to shape the ice.

Of course she wasn’t allowed to help back then. That harvest she just helped pull, yanking the lines with her cousins to haul the already cut ice to the sled that would carry it into town.

She helped break the rows of ice the next year.

At eleven she was allowed to walk the horse down the frozen river, guiding the plow behind it to mark out the ice for cutting.

Finally, when she was fourteen she was finally allowed to use the ice saws. Her back ached as she cut through the ice but it was worth it. Worth it for the pride on her mother's face at the end of the day, worth it too see the stacks of ice and think,  _ I did that. _

Ice is everything to Bay but Bay finds more.

Bay finds freedom.

Bay’s first voyage was the spring when she turned eleven, right at the end of the first ice harvest. 

Sailing isn’t like ice. Sailing isn’t something she learned, with a new step every year, as naturally as breathing. If she didn’t want to learn how to sail, if all she wanted was to cut ice, then that would have been okay.

But she did.

Bay is the one who wanted to sail.

“I guess I shouldn’t have named you for water”, her mother said when Bay was twelve, all ready to go on the next trip. “I should have known you would go to the sea.”

Sailing is something she chooses, stubborn because she needs to know how.

So she learned to sail and she learned to navigate.

She was seventeen when she started to ice dodge, to take a skiff out and dance in the currents between the icebergs. 

Is it dangerous? Yes.

Does she love it? Yes.

Bay loves her mom and her home and cutting ice is what she knows, cutting ice is in her blood. But sailing, Bay chose to sail. 

Ice is home and sailing is freedom.

Bay gets to have both. 

She has her boat, powered by a rare dial, perfect for quick deliveries, and she has her island.

What more could she want, really? 

Ice is everywhere. It's in the water and on the land. Bay has seen islands without ice before. They were interesting.

Maybe.

They were dry and hot and different and maybe Bay might want to see more of them but.

But.

Bay loves ice.

It's everything. It's normal and extravagant and clear and cloudy, it's the walls of her homes and the path that she glides on.

It's the whole community singing together as they lift and carry, working to make sure they get the harvest done in time.

Ice is everything.

But ice is more than just everything. Ice is valuable.

That's how it starts, really. Because ice is valuable and where there is money to be found there are people who are going to take it.

Bay learns to fight because of this. She learns to fight because she has to but also because she wants too.

Fighting is hard but winning is fun and Bay likes being strong, likes knowing she is someone her family, her island can rely on when they need to.

It is another reason to stay.

But sometimes.

Sometimes just knowing how to fight is not enough. Sometimes there are simply too many people.

The Fishgut pirates are not the first group of pirates to attempt to raid Crystal Island, no, Bay has seen pirates before. 

The difference is their numbers. 

Normally the icebergs did a good first job of thinning the numbers, of giving them time to prepare.

This time there are more.

The pirates come and they demand tribute, claiming that Bay’s island, Bay’s home is theirs now and that they should be honored that the Fishgut, and seriously, who called themselves the Fishgut Pirates? In any other scenario Bay would be rolling her eyes, had control of the island now.

They claimed it was an honor to be the Fishgut’s base. To aid the Fishgut Pirates in conquering the Grand line.

A blind man could see it was not.

They killed her uncle, they killed her uncle when he tried to fight and left his blood and body to freeze as a gory warning to anyone else who wanted to fight.

They killed and claimed and they commanded.

They tried to burn as well. Bay wished she could have been amused about that.

She isn’t.

She is just angry. 

Here is the thing about ice. It doesn’t burn well.

Here is the thing about ice. It’s brittle, and with enough pressure will shatter easily. It will crack along fault lines and break into a thousand shards.

Here is the thing about ice. Ice is patient, ice is old. It breaks easily and it melts if things get too hot.

It is fragile. It breaks easily. A tap in the right place is all it takes to shatter a block.

Here is the thing about ice, it reforms.

Ice reforms and creeps along the path the water dripped, frost gathering faster and faster. Ice is quiet. Ice is patient. 

Ice comes back.

Bay is the child of a frozen island. Bay is the child of winter and ice.

She knows how to wait.

Bay has never been quick to anger, never had a blaze of passion. Such things were unwise on an island such as theirs, where the slightest distraction could mean death.

Bay’s anger is cold and sharp and biting.

Bay’s anger is lasting. 

If anything was to be done for good about the pirates then it would have to be done there, and for that they would need more than a few ice cutters who could swing their saws in battle.

They would need more people. More time to plan.

They would need an opportunity. If Bay wanted to do anything she would need to wait.

And not for the Marines.

The Marines would not do anything. Bay had hoped that they would at first, had hoped that they would actually live up to their promise and come to help.

Now she was pretty sure that the Fishguts, and no, that name did not get any better with time, it really didn’t, were paying them off.

If help was going to come from somewhere it was not going to be from them.

If Bay was smart enough, fast enough, there was another place help could come from.

Pirates.

The trick would be finding the right group and the right time. The trick would be waiting until there was a good opportunity. 

Bay did have one card up her sleeve through, one trick she could play.

It was a misconception that Bay had seen before, that the islands of Paradise were totally random and that meant there were never groups of the same island type.

That was false. Random distribution meant that chains of the same island type did happen. And these chains could be hard to navigate, effects stacking to make them more and more treacherous. 

Crystal Island was a part of one of those chains. The danger was not from the freak storms that plagued they rest of the Grandline, no, here the danger was from the hailstorms and the ever shifting icebergs. From the ship getting trapped in sheets of ice, unable to escape the frozen prison.

It was always a risk.

Always.

Nothing was perfectly safe on the ice. But Bay knew her islands, knew them and their tempers. It would be a trade, she would guide them through if they would help her fight.

It was a plan at least.

Even if it just felt so tenuous. What if she couldn’t find anyone? What if the group she found was worse than the Fishguts were?

She had no guarantee. None that she could use.

So she waited. Even when it was hard, even when she saw them sailing off with the ice her family, her island risked their lives to cut.

Even when she was so tempted to just take her skiff and go.

They wouldn’t be able to catch her. The Fishguts, at least the navigator, had apparently been thrown off one of the nearby winter islands, but they wouldn’t catch her.

Not in a ship that big. Not when she could dance around the icebergs, knowing all the hidden paths.

It wasn’t the time yet.

It wasn’t.

So Bay grit her teeth and waited. She waited until one day she couldn’t wait anymore. They were used to her now, used to the quick trips she took to other islands, used to it.

They had even asked her to scout once or twice and joked about her joining their crew like that was something she should be honored by.

It wasn’t. For one they had taken her island, her family hostage. For another they called themselves the Fishgut pirates and she still wasn’t over that.

She hid that though. Let them believe what they wanted to believe, think what they wanted to think. 

Bay was cold and calm and still. 

She was good at that.

Was Bay supposed to read the correspondence she carried as she sped through the island? No.

Did she do it anyways? Yes. 

It was how she found out about the fracture.

She had read about the Whitebeard Pirates, a newer crew, albeit one with a famous captain, before.

They were loyal, that was what one said about them. They were loyal.

It was just something that everybody knew, like they knew ice was cold or devil fruit users are useless in the ocean.

It was odd that they were this far back up the line, but ships came back sometimes. They were probably trying to get something Paradise specific, though really, it didn’t matter why they were there, just that they were.

If the rumors were true, if the rumors were true then they were Bay’s best bet.

The Whitebeard pirates were loyal and apparently the Fishgut pirates had taken one of them hostage.

Bay could use that. It would be a gamble, of course it would be a gamble, but it was the best opening she was going to get.

Walking out onto ice was a risk.

That didn’t mean that Bay didn’t do it.

She was going to take it.

“Are you sure?”, her mother asked, a worried frown on her face.

“I’m sure, we, we can’t go on like this”. There was one thing she needed to check. “Are you sure you can cover for me?”.

“I can”.

“Thanks mom”.

Her mother sighed and pushed one of Bay’s pale blue curls behind her ear. “be safe”.

“I’ll try to come back”. Bay knew about the hair fine cracks that could spell the difference between life and death, she knew the odds.

The water was cold and the ice was only so thick. Sometimes all you could do was hope. Hope, and be ready to jump at the first sign of danger.

It would be worth it though, worth it for the chance.

“I love you”, Bay said, quiet as she stepped out of her mother’s embrace. “I love you”, she repeated, just in case.

“I love you. Take your saw with you”.

Bay grinned, bright as the sun reflected off ice. “I will”, she agreed as she swung it on, her saw’s weight a comforting presence on her back. 

Then it was time to be off. 

Bay wove her skiff through the ice, she had goggles on, of course, blinking was a great way to crash, but her hair was loose and her hood was down and the world was bright and sharp, ocean and ice. Sometimes, when the world was like this Bay never wanted to stop.

Unfortunately she had work to do. Bay checked the pose.

She was still going in the right direction.

Then she looked up. There was a moment of unreality as Bay saw the flag, the question of am I really going to do this? 

The answer was yes. Of course the answer was yes.

The advantage of having a one person boat was that she didn’t look like a threat, at least not when against an entire ship's crew.

That didn’t mean this wasn’t a gamble. That didn’t mean she wasn’t stepping onto uncertain ice.

Bay saw the moment the ship saw her, the figure on the deck starting to scramble. She had a white flag flying from her mast.

Everything said the Whitebeard pirates were honorable. 

It would have to be enough.

None of the canons fired as she carefully steered the Dancer closer.

“Who goes there”, a voice bellowed out, louder than she would have expected conceding the distance.

She actually had to get closer to respond. “I am Whitey Bay of Cystal Island and I wish to talk to your captain”, she shouted back.

“Why should we talk to you?”, the voice retorted.

_ Time for a gamble.  _ “Because I know what happened to Jozu”.

The hush was immediate. As was the pickle of danger that Bay felt twisting down her back like the first warning that she was on thin ice.

She probably was, metaphorically at least.

“Come aboard”, the voice rumbled, edge of danger still present.

_ Time to do this.  _ There was no point in looking back. Not after she had said that. 

Bay kept herself calm, kept her breathing still as she boarded the ship. She saw all the eyes on her. They didn’t matter. 

She needed to speak to the captain. 

Bay had been born on the Grandline, born on an island locked in winter. She was no stranger to unbelievable things.

Captain Whitebeard was huge. Huge and definitely Not Happy. 

“You wished to speak with me?”. The threat in his words was only barely veiled.

“I did”. There was no room for hesitation here. 

“Then talk”.

Bay took a breath. This would probably take a little background. “About seven months ago the Fishgut Pirates”, and under any other circumstances Bay thought there would be laughter, but apparently this was too much for them. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not, “came to my island, Crystal island”, Bay corrected herself, “since then they have been using it as a base, relying on the difficulty in navigating as a way to dissuade anyone from coming after them”, Bay almost brought up her suspensions about the marines but decided against it, she could tell she only had so much time to talk, “During that time they have started using me and the Dancer”, and Bay hated saying using, but it was the best that she could think of, “to carry messages from their different outposts and-”.

“They would trust an outsider to carry messages for them?”, one of the other members, interrupted.

“I’m the fastest person on the island and the best at navigating around it”, Bay was about to stop, to see their reaction when she realized the opening she had, “and that's why I came to talk”. She hoped that was the right term. She really did.

There was no response but Captain Whitebeard’s eyes were trained on her, focused.

She kept going. “I doubt any of you have sailed these waters before and the icebergs here make it hard for even experienced navigators. I know these waters. I know where the Fishgut pirate bases are and how many members there are. I can show you the way, or at least update your maps to show what the ice is actually like right now”.

“What makes you think we would agree to that?”, Captain Whitebeard asked, his voice like the cracking of ice sheets.

“It would be faster. You want to save your crew mate, right?”, it was a rhetorical question, Bay could already tell they wanted to save their crew mate and she was really hoping that it was a good sign that they would listen to her, “I want to save my island. It would be better if we worked together”.

There was silence for a moment.

Then the Captain started laughing. 

The rest of the crew seemed to melt but Bay still felt frozen, unsure if his laughter was a good sign or not. He stopped, smiling for the first time in the conversation. “You’re a cheeky brat, aren’t you?”.

“I’m not a brat, I’m twenty years old”, Bay spat back without thinking. 

Somehow this just made the captain laugh louder.

That was it. Time was ticking and Bay needed to know. “Do we have a deal or not?”, asked, only remembering to soften her tone and the end so it sounded less like a demand.

For a moment Bay felt as clear as ice as the Captain’s eyes narrowed once more, studying her. 

She stayed still, meeting his eyes with her own.

“You have a deal”. 

It felt like being on solid ice again, like the first time the saw made it through the ice and into the water, a good, firm start. 

His words were a signal and suddenly Bay was sitting down and explaining everything she knew about her island's defenses. It rankled somewhat, to have to tell a pirate so much information, but it was for a good cause. Then after that she was being introduced to the navigator, a woman named Melanie and charting out a course, the ship was already moving of course, Bay had a strong feeling that these people were not the type to waste time, but to point out the safer approaches.

She had just finished with marking out the watch perches when there was a voice behind her. “Can you use that?”

“Use what?”, Bay asked without turning as she tried to remember exactly where she had last seen that cluster of icebergs. This ship would not do well getting stuck in them and didn’t have any way of breaking through if things got bad.

“That sword”.

“It's a saw”, Bay corrected automatically, “and of course I can use it. I wouldn’t have brought it if I couldn’t”. Okay, so maybe it was not the most normal of weapons but Bay was used to it. 

Whoever it was let out a quick bark of laughter, it was good to know that Bay was fun entertainment, before getting serious again. “You sure you know?”.

Bay marked where she had last gone around the Pinnacle, they really did not want to run into that iceberg, not with how sharp it was, before turning back around. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t”.

“You have a response for everything, don’t you”.

Bay took a breath. “Do you need something?”, she asked as she turned back around, staring at the bandanded pirate.

“Just checking in, we’re all a bit antsy”.

_ Right. Their brother is gone.  _ It was funny, even just being on this ship for such a short period of time Bay could feel the focus and determination. They worked together just like her island did during the harvest. “I think I’m done with the notes. Your brother, Jozu, is probably in their base on the northern side”. She had told their captain that earlier, with everything else, but maybe it would make him feel better?

“Do you think we will be there soon?”.

Bay thought for a moment. “Maybe a day?”. She had done it quicker but her boat was a scooped up skiff, designed for fast movement, not a full ship that had to watch the icebergs.

“Alright”.

The tension ramped up as Whitebeard started organizing his crew.

“It will go faster with a guide”, Bay pointed out again. She might not be strong enough to free her island on her own, but she was not going to get left behind.

It turned out Whitebeard had a plan for her after all. A strike team. It was the guy who had asked her if she knew how to use her ice saw earlier and one other guy.

“I’m Rakuyo”, guy who didn’t know what an ice saw was offered. 

“Vista”. And Bay was mildly worried for this guy, but if he wanted to show that much chest then that was his problem.

“Bay, but you two already know that. Ready to get going?”.

Their job was to rescue Jozu in order to prevent him from being used as a hostage. 

It was time to go.

It was weird having other people on the Dancer with her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, it was that most people only did it once before refusing to get on ever again. Bay supposed her steering could be a little rough but it wasn’t that bad. “Ready to go fast?”, Bay asked, knowing her grin had too many teeth and not caring.

They both nodded, not that it mattered. It had been a rhetorical question after all.

Bay knew they wanted to get to the north side fort quickly, so she took the fast way, taking advantage of the waves as they sped ahead of the mainship. 

They were still clinging on after she had jumped the third iceberg. 

That was good. She had a feeling that the captain would be mad if she broke his crew.

They were still holding it together after she had gone through the tube, even with the freezing spray that skipping through there always kicked up.

Bay was impressed. Normally people started begging for her to slow down after the first one. 

Finally she pulled into the frozen niche.

Vista pulled out a denden and had a quick conversation while Rakuyo shook himself, and his mace, Bay really wanted to ask about that mace, out.

“Pops said they should be here in a few hours”, he turned, looking at Bay, “your chart is holding well”.

“Of course it is. I know this island”.

They glanced at each other, having some sort of silent conversation. “Can you show us how to get to the fort?”, Vista asked.

“Sure, is it time to move?”.

“It is our job to get in and out quickly”.

She hated the fort. Bay hated it so much. She hated that she had helped to build it, learning how to work with a material that was not ice as she glanced over her uncle's shoulder. It made sense that the Fishguts would choose a building of wood and stone.

They did not understand ice at all. Their presence on the island showed that. The fact that the only buildings they lived in were not made of ice showed that.

Bay hated the fort now, she hated what it represented.

She hated her memories of how excited her uncle had been to build the damn place.

Her uncle was still in front of the fort.

Or his corpse was.

They used it as a warning. Bay wanted to break the whole building down, to saw it apart into chucks and float the chucks out to sea.

_ Soon. Soon.  _ Bay promised herself, keeping herself steady.

“Here we are. They shouldn’t be able to make us out from up there”. Vast amounts of snow had it's uses, and Bay had been very good at hide and seek back in the day.

“We can take it from here”.

Bay didn’t shout. She wanted to. “I’m coming as well”.

“No you’re not”.

“You said”, and Bay can see Rakuyo opening his mouth but she really did not care, “you needed a guide. I’m still your guide and I’m still coming”.

“This isn’t your-”.

“My uncle is outside”, Bay paused before clarifying at the confusion in their eyes, “Frozen”. And Bay did not care that she had interrupted them. This was her island, her home. Her family. She was not going to be left out of this and they could just deal with it.

They looked at each other again.

“You better not slow us down”.

“You two better keep up”, Bay couldn’t help but point out, “I’ve done all the work so far”.

She didn’t expect Rakuyo to snicker at her comment. “I suppose we should start pulling our weight now”.

“That would be good. We need to find your crewmate, right?”.

“That's the plan. Ideally before Pops gets here with everyone else”.

“Then we’d better get started. I have a plan if you two don’t”.

They looked at each other, Vista cracked a quick smile. “I thought you said we should start doing some of the work”.

“Don’t worry, there will be plenty when this place comes down. I just have a good idea for how to sneak in”.

“Do you know a secret entrance or something?”.

“Do you think we’d build a secret exit, how cliche can you get?”.

“Then what's your plan?”.

“I figured we could cut our way through”.

They both stared at her. Bay grinned back. “I am an ice cutter afterall. Wood can’t be any harder than that”.

They did another one of their looks. The type of looks that reminded Bay of long days on the ice and knowing what everyone else was thinking because you had worked with for so long some things were just instinct.

“We you haven’t steered us wrong yet. Is there a place you’d like to cut”.

“My guess is prisoners would be kept lower down, maybe in the basement, so we should aim for that”. Bay still wasn’t sure why they had a basement, buildings here got cold enough without one. 

Her uncle had some reason or another, but he was gone and Bay was still here asking why.

“Works for us”.

It went smoother than Bay had imagined it going. It helped that dusk had slowly started to settle over the island, lenghing the shadows and adding patches of uncertainty and to make things even better the wall that they needed to cut through was in shadow as well, making it that much easier.

“I don’t think there is anyone on the other side”, Vista whispered as they got close to the wall.

“How do you know that?”.

“A pirate never reveals their secrets. Trust us to have some use”. Vista even had the audacity to wink at her like this was some sort of performance or something.

_ He was a good sport about the icebergs,  _ Bay reminded herself. “Okay then, if we get caught I’m blaming you”. _ Hopefully this won’t be too loud.  _ The bite of her saw into the wood was satisfying, even if it did not match up with the solidness of ice.

It didn’t take Bay long to carve a small hole, carfulling wiggling the sections of log out to reveal an empty closet of some sorts.

Then she looked back.  _ Right. _

Vista would probably get stuck if it stayed that size and as funny as that would be they did need to get in and out and some slightly fast pace.

Bay cut it slightly bigger, glancing back to try and check size. Vista nodded, apparently understanding her unasked question.

That was nice of him.

Then they were in. 

Suddenly Rakuyo put a finger to his lips, barely visible in the gloom. 

“- sign so far”, one voice was saying on the other side of the door.

“Does the captain really think they will come? It was only one member”.

“Apparently this group is known for their loyalty or something like that. Not that it matters, soon as we figure out the fruit-”.

They didn’t get a chance to finish speaking. Vista swung the door inward just as Rakuyo lunged out, grabbing the two men and dragging them in. There were swords at each of their throats before they even had a chance to speak.

“I heard you were talking about our brother”, Rakuyo whispered harshly, “I was wondering if you could tell us where he is”.

The two captives looked at each other.

“You know, we only need one of them”, Vista pointed out, voice quiet but piercing as an ice pick.

Bay watched the captives eyes widen even further in terror but stayed back. This was not something she needed to interfere in.

“He’s in the basement”, one of them blurted out.

Bay tried very hard not to wince. That was not good.

“And how do we get to the basement?”. 

They gibbered out directions, each one trying to talk over the other.

“-let us live”, the one who spoke first begged.

Rakuyo glanced at Vista. They both looked at her. 

Bay knew what they were asking, she shrugged and two heads fell to the floor.

Nobody said that ice was merciful.

“Pity we can’t use their clothes”, Vista muttered as he looked at the corpses.

“There’s three of us”, Rakuyo pointed out, “besides, they’d be the wrong size”.

“True”, Vista turned to look at Bay, sheathing his bloody swords. “Told you we’d start pulling our weight”.

“Guess you did”. The blood on the floor was already starting to crystallize from the cold air, barely visible in the gloom. “But if you two don’t start moving I’ll have to take care of everything”.

“We can’t have that”, Rakuyo retorted before going serious again, glancing at Vista with another one of those silent questions.

“We should be good”.

It was that trick again. Bay really wanted to know how he knew. 

This was apparently not a merciful sneak through, twice Vista gestured for them to hide, to wait, and then in moments whoever was approaching was down, bodies left under benches or tucked into corners.

“Isn’t this supposed to be sneaky?”, Bay couldn’t help but ask as Vista was hiding the newest body by shoving it into a bathroom. 

“We’re gonna tear this place apart sooner or later, we just need to get to Jozu before they find us”, Rakuyo said, petting the mace he wore like a scarf. 

Bay still couldn’t help but worry about what would happen when the bodies were found. It all just seemed so messy and reckless.

Somehow they made it to the basement trap door.

That was when Bay remembered something important.

The basement wasn’t heated. She hoped their crewmate had been wearing warm clothes.

_ Should I?  _ There was no point in bringing it up, they were moving as fast as they could and telling them they had another timer seemed kind of pointless.

They made it to the trap door with no more incidents. Bay waited for Vista to do something dramatic like slice the trap door open but instead he got out a set of lock picks. 

_ I guess that works.  _ Still, Bay was impressed, the lock probably wasn’t very good but he had gotten it open in moments. 

Rakuyo went first. Then Bay. Vista stayed up top to keep watch.

She could tell the moment Rakuyo saw his crewmate in how he tensed, the mace almost seeming to shiver for a moment.

Bay caught sight of him a moment after.  _ Hypothermia.  _ Jozu, Bay thought that was his name, barely reacted as Rakuyo tore through the bars, and Bay was not going to think about how strong that made him or about the odd black sheen, to get to him.

That was, of course, when the alarm started to blare, screaming through the base.  _ Well, that answers that question. _

“Do you have him?”.

“Seastone”, Rakuyo hissed, the sharp edge of clear ice. “It’ll take me a moment”.

“I don’t know if we have that”.

It was a split second decisions that had her bolting back up the ladder, leaving Rakuyo below to deal with Jozu and whatever the problem

_ No guns no guns no guns. _

The bangs she heard belayed that hope but even though she could hear the noise she did not get hit.

Somehow Vista was deflecting bullets. 

Bay didn’t have any time to think about it as she parried before coming back around with her saw, it’s teeth biting in.

Hot blood.

Didn’t matter.

Bay kept moving. 

She kept going. 

_ Down! _

The axe went over her head with moments to spare as she was just able to twist out of the way of a pair of daggers.

_ How long can we- _

The building started to shake. Somehow the alarms got louder.

The air was full of swears and the fighting got harder.

More snarls.

More threats.

Then there was stillness. 

“Sorry it took us so long”, a voice was saying. It took Bay a few moments to register that the voice was on their side.

“All good”, Vista said, “we just were getting some good exercise”.

_ One word for it.  _

“-did you find Jozu?”, the new person was saying.

“We’re just coming up”, a voice shouted from beneath the trap door.

Bay gave herself a moment to be impressed at how well Rakuyo levered Jozu up and out, but only a moment because the building was shaking again and because Jozu’s eyes were dropping and he seemed to be sluggish.

It was surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, easy to get out after that. There were several corpses along the way.

It was at the entrance that Bay had to call a stop. “He shouldn’t go outside”.

It was the pirate whose name that Bay didn’t know who branched off, “I’ll try not to have too much fun”. He taunted.

Bay watched warily, as they waited.

The shaking had stopped. Or at least it felt more distant, not like it was trying to tear the building down.

“I told Pops we needed this place in one piece for now”, Rakuyo said easily when Bay asked, showing the denden on his wrist.

Suddenly Bay felt very silly. She had thought it was lucky that they were with Jozu when the place had started to shake.  _ Of course there was communication.  _

It made a lot more sense that way.

Bay was still worried. She knew that Jozu needed to stay somewhere at least a little warm and that going outside would be bad but she still felt shaky, her hand twitching toward her saw with nerves. “Are you sure they will be-”.

“They’ll be fine”.

He had been right. 

Bay started to feel a little out of place as the rest of the crew swarmed in, bloody and gathering around Jozu before stilling as a shadow approached.

Bay looked up. Silhouetted in the gloom was Whitebeard and he was not at all bloody. Somehow that was even more intimidating. 

“Jozu”.

“Sorry Pops”, Jozu managed to get out in between the shivers. Bay was impressed, he was surprisingly lucid.

Things definitely speed up after that. It felt sort of surreal. Bay had been trying to figure out a way for months.

And then in a little over two days it was over.

It was over.

She had done something.

Whitebeard got another call on his denden, apparently the other fort was down as well, and, Bay perked up to hear, they had had help from the locals as well.

It was over. 

It was really over.

The Fishgut flag was burning. Apparently the Captain had been at the other base and some of the other locals had taken care of him.

Bay hoped Bianca had been one of them. She deserved it for her father.

It was something like over.

Suddenly Bay was aware of how much she hurt.

It was a good thing that Whitebeard pirates seemed to have good nurses. Bay kept an eye on the one who had given Jozu a blanket, he had asked for alcohol and she knew that would be bad.

Luckily the nurse seemed to know it would be bad as well, swiping the flask that another crew member had attempted to give Jozu with a single, swift motion. 

Bay was not spared the attention either, apparently saying that they were not fatal and that you were fine was a great way to get yelled at. Who knew?

Then there was just waiting. It was night and soon the fires were light for a party.

Bay knew she should feel uncomfortable, that their only deal had been working together to fight the Fishguts with no agreement on what came after.

She didn't.

It actually felt comfortable. 

She watched as Jozu was denied his alcohol not one time, not two times, but three times. 

She watched as a group of pirates started daring each other to do more and more ridiculous things.

It was more funny than anything else. Funny and chaotic.

“Enjoying the show?”.

Bay’s head shot up, just catching Vista out of the corner of her eye. “It's just fun watching people be happy”.

“It is”.

They sat for a little longer, watching the fires. 

“So did we pull our weight?”.

It took Bay a moment to make the connection. She put her hand on her chin and drew her eyebrows in, faking intense thought. “I guess you did okay”.

“Only okay? I thought I did pretty well for myself in that brawl”.

“I suppose”, Bay concluded, drawing it out.

Vista huffed.

They held it for a moment before they both burst out into giggles. She kept going helplessly, everytime she looked at the mock offended look on Vista's face it just got worse and it wasn’t just the joke it was everything.

The world felt so much lighter now.

Bay couldn’t stop laughing.

Apparently Vista couldn’t either. He kept trying to calm down, to take a breath but it didn’t seem to be working.

The giggles just kept catching.

Suddenly a shadow loomed above them.

“And what is so funny now, my son?”.

Vista opened his mouth. He couldn’t seem to stop laughing, which, of course, just made it harder for Bay to stop laughing because now Whitebeard, and she was trying really hard not to be afraid of him, was looking more and more confused and somehow that just made everything better.

It took her a long time to calm down and everything ached even worse at the end. Her only consolation was that Vista seemed to have it just as hard.

She couldn’t look him in the face. She was too afraid it would make her start laughing again.

They never did explain what was going on to the captain. Somehow that just made things even funnier.

In the morning they headed back home. Well, Bay headed back home, the Whitebeard Pirates headed to rejoin the rest of the crew.

It was even more surreal to see her own village. Bay knew in her head it had been less than a week since she had seen it last.

It still felt funny to be back because everything looked the same. This wasn’t where the Fishguts had been, of course, but somehow Bay had expected something different.

Then she saw a flash of familiar blue hair and nothing else mattered. 

“Mom!”, she leaned into the hug as her mother’s arms wrapped around her, careful to avoid the saw of course, but warm.

For a moment everything was perfect. The Whitebeards were planning to leave the next day and Bay was actually a little sad about that, she liked Vista and Rakuyo and getting to know the rest would have been nice and Vista had had some fun stores and fighting with him had been fun, but her island was safe and Bay was so so glad about that.

Taking a look at the newspaper the next morning was worse than the time she had fallen through the ice, it was just as cold and just as frightening but this time there was no easy cure.

No fast fix.

Bay closed her eyes, hoping it had just been her imagination. That she was just tired from the parting and when she opened them again it would have changed.

That she made it up.

She looked at the paper. 

There was no change.

_ Thats me.  _

It said “Ice Witch”.

“Ice Witch Whitey Bay”.

That was her on the poster. Her face, her snarl, her blade as she fought. That was her.

It felt a little like the world was ending.

In a way it was.

She had a bounty.

She counted, trying to keep calm as she looked at all the zeros. There were a lot of zeros. More than they made even during the heaviest part of the ice cutting season.

_ I’m worth that. _

_ I’m worth that much. _

It was a funny sort of numbness, seeing the poster. She had fought pirates, had that really been enough to get her a bounty?

It wasn’t fair!

_ Nothing is fair on the ice,  _ her mother’s voice whispered. It wasn’t.

_ Okay. I have a bounty. What does that mean? _

Her mom found her still staring at the paper. 

“Oh Bay”, she crooned. Last time it had been a hug of victory. This didn’t feel like that at all. This felt a little bit like a goodbye. “I was afraid this might happen”.

“You were?”. Bay hated how small her voice sounded. How slushy and weak, like she was only moments from melting away.

“I was. A marine presence explains a lot, pirates make for easy exploitation”.

It made too much sense. Why pay fair prices to the people who worked on the island when you could work with the pirates and get a much larger cut of the profit. “What do I do now?”.

“We talk to the Whitebeard pirates, see if they will take you off the island. I saw that you liked them earlier”.

“I don’t want to leave”, Bay admitted, unwilling to move from the hug, unwilling to look at the poster. “I don’t want too”.

“Oh Bay, you know this island was always going to be too small for you”.

“That's not true”. Bay muttered rebelliously. 

Her mother just laughed. “All this is doing is speeding up the time table”.

Bay opened her mouth.

There was a knock on the door.

“Bay, you in?”.

It was Vista. 

“Yeah”, Bay shouted as she slipped out of her mother's hug and went to open the door.

“We were just wondering if-”, Vista stopped, obviously having seen the poster in her hands. “I’m sorry”.

He sounded sorry too. For some reason that annoyed Bay. “I chose to fight”. 

“That you did. Pops wants to talk to you”.

“He does? About what?”. 

“That's for him to tell you”. There was another one of Vista’s ‘I have a secret’ smiles. Bay was vaguely tempted to kick him in the shins for it but knew that that would be a childish impulse.

She was above shin kicking.

Totally.

Any thread of petty annoyance faded as she walked with Vista. She saw Rakuyo and Jozu along the way and waved at them, as well as a few other pirates who she recognized.

It was nice.

Then she saw Whitebeard and all of the levity the short walk had generated was gone, like opening her coat too early and losing all the heat. 

He was looking at the newspaper. He was looking at her poster.

“I see you got yourself into a little trouble. ‘Ice Witch’, that's an interesting name”.

“Makes more sense than Whitebeard, all you’ve got is a mustache”. Bay wasn’t sure where that comment came from. She was supposed to be afraid of Whitebeard. For a moment she froze, watching for his reaction.

He burst out laughing and Bay untensed. “You are a cheeky brat, aren’t you. Join my crew and become my daughter”.

“Are you serious?”. He had to be joking. 

Whitebeard stopped laughing. “Of course I am. Become my daughter”.

He wasn’t joking. “I need time to think”. 

“I guess we can stay a little while, this island does have some wonderful booze”.

“It's made from corn”. Bay wasn’t sure why it was important. It just was. “It's very strong”. 

That set off another bout of laughter. “Some of my children have already found that out, I suspect they will be grateful for the delay”.

Bay could imagine. Excusing herself was awkward but she needed time to think. 

Vista didn’t try to talk to her on the way home. Bay was grateful for that as well.

“Whitebeard offered me a spot on his crew”, Bay whispered as if it was a confession.

“Do you want to go?”, Mom asked her.

“Do I have a choice?”. She had a bounty.

“We could try and appeal, to show proof that you were acting in defense of Crystal Island”.

One thing Bay had learned a long time ago was not to delude herself with false hope. She had a bounty now. That meant that things were going to change.

They were both silent for a moment. Then her mother spoke again. “You always thought the island was too small. Always sailing whenever you had the chance”.

“Are you telling me to go?”.

“Are you saying you wanted to spend the rest of your life here?”, she retorted.

Bay didn’t have an answer to that.

Ice was everything, everything but freedom.

Vista found her later, when she was sitting on a ledge overlooking her home, uncaring of the cold. 

“Tell me about everything you’ve seen”. Bay hoped it didn’t sound too much like a demand.

Vista did. 

“If I”, Bay started, “if I went with you guys would I get to see the same things?”.

“You would. Besides,” and now Bay could hear a note of humor coming into Vista’s voice, “it would be nice if you pulled some of my weight”.

Bay had to giggle at that. It had been a good night.

She still didn’t know. How was she supposed to just leave everything behind with no guarantees about coming back.

How was she supposed to leave everything behind? Bay just didn’t know and it was a new form of ache.

She watched the sun set over the water, trying not to think about how far away it was, how many sunsets she had left to watch from her ledge.

True to Whitebeard’s word their ship was still there the next day.

She took the Dancer out. Took it as far as she dared to go and savored the biting wind as she sailed through it.

_ How long could I do this for?  _ Bay wondered.  _ How long? _

She didn’t know the answer. It felt like she never had.

That scared her.

It wasn’t just Vista that wanted to talk to her now. It wasn’t just Rakuyo either.

It was everyone on Whitebeard's crew. Even the cabin boy, Marco, thought his name was. Well, she knew his name was Marco now and that he was apparently a fucking phenoix because his devil fruit was bullshit, talked to her a little.

Marco wanted to go out on the Dancer with her.

Apparently Vista had been talking about his ride. 

Marco whooped as she took him under the bridge and over the loop. His excitement was endearing.

Bay did it again.

And again.

It was nice.

Marco had fun stories as well, though a lot of his ended with, “and then I got in trouble because I wasn’t supposed to be out then”.

“So are you going to come with us? Rakuyo asked two days later.

Bay didn’t know what the right answer was. She thought of the next harvest coming up, of working to break about the ice and running the plow.

She thought of fighting.

She thought of sailing.

She thought of Vista’s laughter and Marco’s whoops of joy and even Whitebeard amusement when she called him out on his frankly bizarre bounty name.

She just didn’t know.

When she went home that evening her bags were packed. 

“Mom?”.

“You are going to go with them”. It wasn’t said like an order, more like a fact. Ice was solid, the water was cold, and Bay was going to leave.

“I’m-”.

“You would have said no by now if you wanted to stay, drawing it out only makes things worse”.

It felt like the shattering of an ice sheet. Like plunging into freezing water, all denial and fear and helpless blindness as she floundered. “I love you”, Bay whispered, unable to think of anything else to say.

“I know you do. I know. But you’re a grown woman now, and it is time for you to go. I’ve talked to Captain Whitebeard”, and of course her mother had talked to him, Bay didn’t know why that surprised her as much as it did, “he seems like a decent captain”.

“I know”. Bay liked the rest of the crew, they were warm in the way the best people were. “I just”. Bay hadn’t let herself think of leaving before. She hadn’t. She was now and it hurt. “You’re right?”.

“About what?”, her mother coaxed.

“About me saying no”. As it was leaving just made too much sense. There was only so far she could sail alone.

“I’m your mother, I know these things”.

“I might have a father then as well”, Bay pointed out, remembering the way the crew referred to each other, “and lots of siblings as well”.

“Nothing wrong with a big family, you always wanted more siblings when you were younger”.

Bay remembered that. “I don’t think this was what I meant”.

Her mother laughed and Bay savored the noise. “I don’t think it was either, but the world works in mysterious ways”.

Bay didn’t let go. “Do I have too?”.

“There is no point to putting it off”, her mom paused before looking amused, “I don’t know if our alcohol stores could handle it”.

Bay couldn’t help the wet giggle. “We wouldn’t want to run out of that”.

“It is your duty to save us from that horrible fate”, she said, gravely.

Bay took a breath. She imagined the ocean before her, wild and boundless. “I will do my best”

Ice was everything but she was going to go to sea.

Bay walked back to the Whitebeard’s ship, her head held high. 

“I will join your crew”.

It was dignified for one moment.

Then Vista was sweeping her into a hug and another party started and for the first time since Bay realized that she had to leave her home she felt a little less numb.

A little bit more like these people could be another home.

Bay worried as she stood by the gang plank, surrounded by people she needed to say goodbye too.

“Will you guys-”, Bay started.

“We can look after ourselves”, Bianca promised. “You’re the one with sixty million berri. You take care of yourself”.

“But what if more pirates come and-”.

“And we will be fine”.

Bay took a deep breath, looking down at the snow covering the ground, packed down by pirates on the move. “Yeah, you guys will be”. 

“You have fun and we will be watching for your next poster”, Bianca said, eyes dancing.

“My next poster?”. Just having one bounty was a problem. She wasn’t going to increase it!

“Like you’d ever be happy with a sixty million berri bounty, you know you’re gonna raise that number”.

Bay really wanted to protest. “It's a lot”.

“And it's going to be more. Now you go and kick more ass”, Bianca said, cheerful as she gave Bay a shove.

That was that.

The next few hours were even more a blur of names as Bay met so many of her new siblings, all of whom seemed genuinely excited to welcome her to their family.

It was nice.

Bay still ached when she watched her island vanish into the horizon, as the weather warmed to the point where she couldn’t see her breathe anymore but water was just another form of ice and Bay knew she was going to be okay.

She was going to be better than okay. 

She was Bay, she was ice and water and freedom and she was going to find her way. 

  
  



End file.
